A Silicon Valley investor accused of sexual harassment by an anonymous blogger has sued the mysterious scribe for defamation – only to find the writer appeared to be a business rival in disguise.
Anis Uzzaman, CEO of Fenox Venture Capital, was outraged when a post appeared on popular Japanese blogging site Hatena in March …

Re: No VPN?

Speaking of Uber

There's been a couple of articles about Uber in the Japan Times recently. The first suggested that Uber were trying to persuade SoftBank to buy a slice of the company. The second was that SoftBank had instead put money into a popular East Asian rival of Uber's. Seems SoftBank weren't tempted in the least...

Re: Speaking of Uber

If his defence is that over fifty people within the company could have done it, then presumably the legal liability falls on the directors of the company, which will surely motivate them to discover exactly which employee was responsible. This should be fun...

It sounds like the IP address was Brandon Hill's home address rather than a company one so I would guess they'll sue Brandon Hill rather than his company. Sue the directors? I don't think so, unless it's part of a "sue anyone and anything who might be involved" blanket bombing, in which case Comcast and the Akond of Swat might also be defendants. Also I don't think there is such a thing as "the legal liability". You can sue whoever you want. "I think you should have sued someone else instead" isn't a defence.

Ummm ...

Thought experiment. El Reg publishes a story about an unnamed sex pest whose description happens to match yours or mine.

Do we instantly identify with the subject? Do we assume people we know will identify us in the story? Not commentards (I've no idea what you look like in person), but someone who both reads the e-rag and knows us.

And then, what lengths do we go to to draw the world's attention to the story and our alleged role in it? Not just ignore it and move on. Nor (being a regular commentard) join the commentariat from the peanut gallery. But wade right in with the Power of Denial.

"It wasn't me, guv."

"Good Lord! Yes, you do rather match the description. Fancy that.""

... and then go to extraordinary lengths to draw the world's attention to the story and yourself. Homing in on one specific attribute of the post: the IP address - as opposed to, say, the commentard's user details.

And that's positing the story in a widely-read publication in English. Not a blog in Japanese: surely already a specialist niche in a Silicon Valley readership!

One might almost suppose he had discovered how easy it is to spoof an IP address. How many Commentards have never framed your mate over some trivial prank? How many of us have never been victim of a joe-job?

"Regarding the allegation, we consider it a false allegation for the following reasons. Though it could be through the IP which I own, I am not the person who wrote or published the article.

I have no reasons to damage [Fenox's] business. Earlier this month, we have notified Fenox that there is a possibility that my IP was used to publish the article by someone as there are over 50 people who know the SSID and password of the Wi-Fi.

Currently we are communicating with Fenox via our attorneys."

It may or may not have been you but you own the IP so it's your responsbility.